Brake-shoe and process for making same.



G. T. BOND.

BRAKE SHOE AND PROCESS FOR MAKING S AME.

APPLICATION FILED ocr. n, 1911.

1,292,423 Patented Jan. 28, 1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

G. T. BOND.

BRAKE SHOE AND PROCESS FOR MAKING SAME.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 17, 1917.

1 ,292,423 Patented J an. 28, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- Snow H601 3 W 9? NA,

GEORGE '1. BOND, OF HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA.

BRAKE-SHOE AND PROCESS FOR MAKING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 28, 1919.

Application filed October 17, 1917. Serial No. 197,058.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE T. BOND, a citizen of the United States, residing at Huntington, in the county of C'abell and State of West Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Brake- Shoes and Processes for Making Same, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The invention relates to the reclamation and use of brake-shoes that have become worn in service to such an extent that it is necessary or advisable to remove them from the brake-heads. In accordance with the invention, the worn shoes are made available for use as parts of new shoes in practically the same form and with little change from that in which they are removed from the heads. Thus the time and expense of re claiming the metal of the worn shoes by melting are avoided.

My Letters Patent No. 1,227,376, of May 22, 1917, pertains to the association of a worn shoe with a new one by pressing and deforming the holding-lugs or keepers on the rear face of the worn one in their entirety into correspondingly-positioned mortises in the contact or front face of a new one. The keepers usually are integral parts of a malleable steel back, with which the shoe-body is associated by casting or other 1 fabrication in the process of manufacture.

Sometimes, in practice and under certainconditions of service, particularly in the case of steel or steel-tired wheels, it has been found that there is liability to score the tread surfaces of the wheels during the period the Wear is through the back and what were the keepers of the old shoe, due to the difference of characteristics of the shoe-body and back and to the fact that scoring is more liable to occur when steel is in frictional contact with other steel.

The present invention is directed to avoidance or lessening of theliability to score the wheels by lessening the amount of steel that eventually during wear will be brought to contact with the wheel-treads.

. When .read in connection with the de scription herein, the features of the 1nven-' tion will be apparent from the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof, which.

sarily thereto in interpretation of the claims,

as departures therefrom Within the limits of the claims can be made without departing from the nature and spirit of the in vention.

Like reference-characters refer to corresponding parts in the views of the drawings, of which Figure 1 is a side elevation of a partiallyworn brake-shoe in position to be pressed against the face of, and into association with, a new shoe;

Fig. 2 is a side view, partly in section on the line 22, Fig. 3, of an old and new shoe pressed into interlocked association and constituting a unitary article;

Fig. 3 is a view of the back or keeper side of a brake-shoe;

Fig. 4 is a view of the front or wearing side of a brake-shoe;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 5-5, Fin". 1; and

Fig. 6 is a view illustrative of a method of removing parts of the keepers of a worn shoe preparatory to its association with a new shoe.

Beferrin more particularly to the drawings A designates a partially-worn brakeshoe, the original contour of the wearing side of which is indicated by a dotted line A, and B an unworn shoe.

Shoes of the type of that at the left of Fig. 1 are among those that have been used on railway-cars. Such a shoe, as well as that at the right of Figs. 1 and 2, includes a body portion 5, which has a continuouslycurved wearing-face conforming approximately to the periphery of the tread of the wheel a ainst which it contacts, as indicated by the ilotted line A, and a rear face substantially parallel therewith. The body portion may be formed partly or entirely of chilled metal, it may have inserts of any suitable material to increase the wearing and friction qualities as commonly practised in the art, or it may be of ordinary gray or white cast iron, at the discretion of the maker and user to meet the particular demands of the service to which it is to be put.

The shoe has one or more loop-like keepers 6, projecting backwardly from the rear side and arranged to cooperate with a brakehead to hold the shoe thereon. The keepers are of malleable sheet steel, they are formed with legs 6* and a connecting-piece 6 and they are provided with openings 7 formed through the legs and disposed in longitudinal series with respect vto the shoe for reception of a securing-key (not shown) whereby the shoe is prevented from displacement from the brake-head.

In the type shown, the keepers are formed integrally with a back 8 by bending from sheet-metal stock at intervals to dovetail shape, they extend transversely of the shoe, and the shoe-body is cast to the back, which is of slightly less width than the shoe-body. In maufacture, the back is so held in a mold of such shape that, during the process of molding, the metal of the shoe-body flows into openings 9 in the back, and also forms side marginal ribs 5 along the lateral edges of the back, whereby connection of the parts is efiected and reliably maintained. The keyways 7 and securing-oped ings 9 preferably are formed in the stock before. bending.

In order that a shoe, when it has become worn to such an extent that it, is advisable to withdraw it from service (say to the place indicated by the full line A: in Fig. 1), may be associated practically lntact as a wearing member and as a part of the wearing portion of another, shoe, the invention provides for the employment of parts of the keepers that have been used to hold theshoe on a brake-head to hold the worn shoe on another by bending them into mortises, 10 in the face of the unworn shoe, in a manner somewhat similar to that set out by my previously-cited Letters Patent.

However, in accordance with the present invention, and. to lessen, for the reason hereinbefore stated, the quantity of material diiferent from the shoe-body proper that is brought to frictional contact with the wheeltreads during the wear, portions of the keepers 6 are removed. The portions removed are the connectingpieces 6 and small parts of the legs immdiately adjacent thereto down to the keyways 7. Thus there remains of the keepers, and as lugs 6, the portions of the legs 6- lying on each side of the keyways.

The outer portions of the keepersas. thus described may be removed in any suitable manner, at the places indicated by the line w'm, Fig. 6. One method contemplated by theinvention is by shearing off in a manner illustrated by Fig. 6.

This involves the use of hand or power operated shearing-tongs C, each of the cutting-heads C of which has adjacent to its cutting edge a gage-projection C". When the outer portion of a keeper is to be sheared off, an anvil D is placed in the keeper between the legs thereof, and the cutting -heads are. caused to straddle the, keeper, with the gage-projections contacting at their free ends with the rear face of the shoe, the projections being of such length that the cutting edges will be eX-- actly at the places it is desired that the shear be made. Then the tongs are operated and the shear made through the legs against the anvil, which operates to pre vent undue deformation of the remaining portions of the keeper.

The mortises or recesses 10, which in the new shoe are. of a number corresponding to the number ,of'pairs ofl'u-gs' 6, are formed in such mannerthat, when the lugs are pressed into them, the lugs will be bent into interlocked relation with the material of the body of'the new shoe. Each of the mortises, which is arranged to receive a pair of the lugs, includes a slot 1-0 opening to the cont-act face of the shoe, from which extends a recess 10 into the shoebody. for each of the lugs- 6. The slot 10 is somewhat wider than the thickness of the lugs, in order reliably to receive them, and it has walls that incline or converge to the recesses 10 to guide the lugs thereinto. The recesses 1.0 curve or incline from their 100 slots away from the lines of entrance to the slots or away from linessubstantially at right angles to the length oft-he shoe-body, or in other words they incline with respect to the contour of the contact face of" the 105 shoe, so that, when the lugs are pressedinto the recesses, they will bend to lockingengagement therein.

p The cutting operation for removal of portions of the keepers leaves the steel back of 110 the shoe in several pieces, each of which constitutes a clip-like member that includes the plate portion proper held to the shoebody and the lugs projecting from the end or ends thereof. Where a shoe has a plurality of keepers, as in the form show-n, each of the intermediate pieces has a pair of lugs projecting from each end thereof, and each of the end pieces has a pair projecting only from the end thereof'farther away from the end of the shoe-body, as seen in Figs. 1 and 2.

It is desirable to make the lugs ofeach clip cooperate with one another to hold-reliably into the body of the new shoeindependently of the other clips, to avoid,

among other things, the liability of a clip portion from becoming detached when the old shoe has been worn down to it. Therefore, recesses for lugs of each clip should incline or curvein diverse directions. Thus the recesses 10* for one pair of lugs of an intermediate clip curve in a direction opposite tothose for the other pair, as, for example, as shown by the drawings, in which the pairs of recesses curve or incline toward each other; and, in the case of the pair of lugs of each end clip, one recess curves or inclines in one direction and the other in the opposite direction.

'In order to secure a worn brake-shoe, whose keeper or keepers have been treated as described herein, to an unworn one and thus to obtain a unitary article in which the unworn part of the used shoe constitutes a wearing member that is held against the wearing face of the unworn shoe and is coextensive therewith and is employed until completely worn away, the two shoes are placed in the relative positions shown by Fig. 1 in a press or other suitable machine having holding-dies and a ram or their equivalents. The legs are held in alinement with and extend toward the mortises of the unused shoe. The machine is caused to operate and to press the two shoes together with the wearing-face of the unused shoe against the rear face of the used shoe, as

' shown by Fig. 2.

- the used During th1s operation, the lugs of the worn shoe are guided by the slots 10 to and they are forced into and bent to conform to the curve or inclination of the recesses 10 of the unused shoe. Any of the projecting material of the back that is not bifurcated by the keyways into the lugs 6 is received and housed by the slots 10, and thus those parts of the material are not liable to prevent close contact of the two shoes.

The abutting faces of the two shoes being of the same contour, when pressed together they contact practically at all places, and such contact is maintained by the pressedin lugs until the old shoe is worn away, after which further wear is taken by the body of the new shoe, which, after being worn to such extent that it is advisable to withdraw it from service, may be attached to a still newer shoe in the manner hereinbefore described.

After the two shoes are pressed together, the machine is operated to release the article produced, which then is removed and is ready for use.

By removing portions of the keepers of shoe that is about to be brought into association with an unused one, as described herein, there is a reduction of the area of the steel or other material different from the shoe-body that necessarily comes into contact with the wheel-treads as the shoe is being worn through the back, with a corresponding reduction of liability to damage the wheel-tread by scoring. Moreover, a more uniform frictional texture of metal is obtained by the reduction, with a more constant co-efficient of friction. Further, less power is required in pressing the reclaiming or partly-worn shoe into union with the holding shoe, in view of the fact that the lugs 6 are bent to locking position in the curved or inclined recesses l0 with greater ease than where the entire keeper is deformed into a mortise.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A process of forming brake-shoes that includes the forming of a brake-shoe with recesses opening to the contact face and extending into the body at diverse inclinations, and pressing the rear face of another brake-shoe, having lugs constituting permanent parts thereof and projecting rearwardly therefrom, into abutment with said contact face and by the same action pressing said lugs into said recesses.

2. A process of forming brake-shoes that includes the removal of the connectin -piece of a fixed loop-like bendable holdingfi eeper of a brake-shoe and leaving the legs of the keeper as lugs, and the pressing of the rear face of said shoe into abutment with the contact face of another brake-shoe having a recess opening to said face and extending into the shoe-body at an inclination to the face thereof and by the same action pressing lugs into said recess.

3. A process of forming brake-shoes that includes the removal of the connecting-piece of a fixed loop-like bendable holding-keeper of a brake-shoe and leaving the legs of the keeper as lugs, and the pressing of the rear face of said shoe into abutment with the contact face of another brake-shoe having recesses opening to said face and extending into the shoe-body at diverse inclinations and by the same action pressing said lugs into said recesses.

4. A process of forming brake-shoes that includes the taking of a brake-shoe having as a permanent part thereof a loop-like bendable holdingkeeper comprising legs having openings therethrough and an outer piece connecting the legs and removing the outer portion of said keeper down to said openings and leaving the legs as lugs, and the pressing of the rear face of said shoe into abutment with the contact face of another brake-shoe having recesses opening to said face and extending into the shoe-body in diverse inclinations and by the same action pressing said lugs into said recesses.

5. A process of forming brake-shoes that includes the taking of a brake-shoe having as a permanent part thereof a loop-like bendable holding keeper comprising legs and a connecting-piece, placing an anvil within the keeper, removing said connecting-piece by shearing through the legs against the anvil said and leaving the legs as lugs, and the pressing of the rear face of said shoe into abutment With the contact face of another braked-shoe having recesses opening to said face and ex.- tending into the shoe-body in diverse inc linations and by the same action pressing said lugs into said recesses.

6. They combination of a brake-shoe body having a recess opening to the contact. face thereof and inclined With respect thereto, and another brake-shoe body abutting said contact face and having a portion of What was a fixed malleable keeper thereof bent into and locked in. said recess.

7. The combination of a brake-shoe body having recesses opening to the contact. face thereof and inclined in diverse directions with respect thereto, and another brakeeshoe,

body abutting said contact face and having portions of hat was a fixed bendable keeper thereof bent into and locked in. said liecesses.

8. The combination of a brake-shoe body having recesses opening to the contact face thereof and inclined in diverse directions with respect thereto, ,and another brakeeshoe body abutting said contact face and having a plate secured thereto and comprising lugs.

bent into and loekedin said recesses.

9. The combination of a brakeeshoe body havlng recesses. openlllgjv to the contact face thereof and inclined. in diverse. directions with respect t ier ia,v and anethe vbnakeesfhoe nature.

GEORGE T. BOND.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Eatenta Washington-D, 1G." 

